San Galindo Lagoon

The Laguna de San Galindo is a natural wetland in the municipality of Chinchón, in the Community of Madrid, located at 520 m altitude in the basin of the Tajo and, more specifically, in the sub-basin of the Tajuña. It has an area of 2.25 ha of wetland and a protection zone of 3.79 ha; the official record identifies it as a single lagoon, privately owned and with private and public autonomous management. Its origin is karstic, linked to the partial dissolution of the underlying gypsum, a characteristic geological feature of this type of wetland enclaves. What can be observed is a small sheet of water integrated into a landscape of meadows and wetlands associated with the lower Tajuña, with marsh vegetation on its banks. The official documentation highlights its faunistic and landscape relevance, and emphasizes that it is of ecological interest because it has not been transformed into a crop field, which is rare in this section of the basin. Its interest for the visit is not in the intensive recreational use, but in the reading of the natural landscape and in the observation of a wetland of gypsiferous origin that is part of the network of catalogued wetlands of the Community of Madrid. The card of the Spanish Inventory of Հumid Zones describes it as a functional ecological unit of ecological interest and points out its value as a wildlife refuge. In the local context of Chinchón, this site reinforces the environmental value of the Tajuña valley and helps to understand the presence of natural lagoons in a region very marked by sedimentary processes and evaporitic geology. It is an area of interest for demanding visitors for its combination of landscape, biodiversity and geological uniqueness.